Elections have consequences. On the upside, here in North Carolina we are poised to continue reforming state government with an eye toward the tax system, the education system, transportation planning, and the overall relationship between government and business.

“We need to change lots of things about how health care is organized and financed and delivered if we’re going to have the ability to create the health care system I’m here calling for,” Roper said.

He didn’t spell out exactly what type of system he was calling for in his presentation to the committee, but he did on an episode of the syndicated radio show The People’s Pharmacy earlier this year.

Under the current American health care system, Roper said, hospitals have to charge people who can pay more money to compensate for those who can’t pay.

He said “a more sensible approach” would be to set up “one insurance scheme for everybody and charge premiums to people who could afford to pay it, and a sliding scale for those who couldn’t. Then [provide] subsidies for those and the bottom of the scale, and then collect the money and pay the bills … that works in other countries.”

The host noted that the system Roper was advocating sounded “suspiciously” like a single-payer system, and Roper confirmed that was what he was describing.

“The problem with that here is it runs counter to our tradition of radical individualism and Americans having great distrust of major government programs,” Roper said.

“None of the reforms that Americans would find reasonable will work unless most if not all of our population is in the system,” he continued. “Unless people can be compelled … and I’ll use the word compelled… to make plans and buy insurance ahead of time then the only people who will buy it are those that have these chronic, serious illnesses, or pre-existing conditions.”

“The question is how do we spread the risk over 310 million people in a way that is fair?”

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